400 Lonely Things - Apophrenia
(c) 2024 400 Lonely Things
Artist....: 400 Lonely Things
Album.....: Apophrenia
Source....: WEB/MP3
Tracks....: 10
Genre.....: Electronic
Label.....: 400 Lonely Things
Encoder...: LAME 3.100
Quality...: 320 kbps / 441kHz / Full Stereo
URL.......: http://deezer.com/album/562742742
Tracklist:
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1. Alpheus 6:36
2. Beloved 6:44
3. Ceased Omen 9:20
4. I Am One Of You 13:25
5. Red Ilium 4:51
6. The Time Of Awakening 7:04
7. Thalassic 7:18
8. Torgo's Lament 6:55
9. We Eliminate Our World 5:55
10.The Blessings Of The Sun 8:51
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76:59
Total:186.52MB / 76:59
Release Notes:
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"400 Lonely Things are creating some of the most beguiling, captivating and
haunting experimental and ambient music. Apophrenia is... quite frankly
experimental music at its best."
Compulsiononline.com
"Very spacious, very dense, occasionally a bit noisy, but with eyes firmly
locked on the ambient and atmospheric aspect of the music. With some excellent
results, I might add."
Vital Weekly
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First things first - this is NOT a concept album.
It is however, thematic.
This is my anti-conspiracy theory album, based on muscle-memory recollections of
being subjected to the paranoid world of right-wing conservative Christian
apocalyptica in the 1980s and early 90s that my father trafficked in. Then
later, through my own times immersed in the inevitably overlapping
apocalypse-culture psychedelic metaphysical occult conspiracies of the 90s that
were so prevalent in industrial / experimental / art of the time.
I eventually made it to the other side of all of these views and found that I
had learned a great deal about how my mind behaves depending on what seeds are
permitted to take root in its soil - which are watered and which are given
sunlight. And which are pulled up by the roots. I was happy to let those
particular poison fruits wither on the vine and never return to them.
In the past several years though, those Christian right-wing conspiracies of my
youth have become more absurd, more toxic, more hateful, more violent, more
virulent, more racist and even more paranoid here in America. No big surprise
there. However, they have also become mainstream - with approximately 15-20% of
Americans believing in Q-Anon at this time.
This mainstreaming of conspiracy theory has stirred up some ugly feelings in me.
Memories of what that bad trip, conspiratorial mindset felt like. What it
sounded like from the inside. The schizophrenia of paranoia. The apophenia of
unchecked magical thinking. The undertow of narcissism. The comfort of thinking
you are in on something. The discomfort of thinking something is in on you. The
mistrust of everything else. The relentless anxiety. With Apophrenia, I visit
the graveyard of these feelings from the grassy side, and contentedly piss on
the tombstone.
I should mention that Apophrenia is composed almost entirely of samples -
including a brief interlude I sampled using sounds Jonathan and I recorded
together in 1989 at The Barracks in Temple, GA. While many of the other samples
are sourced from obscure films about war and tribal identity, and from the
obscure devotional music and philosophy of actual religious cults, there are no
direct references to any specific conspiracy of any stripe.
IÆve also been told by some who have heard this album that they find it
ôbeautifulö. I donÆt hear it. To me, this is a pretty ugly album, but IÆm
incredibly myopic when it comes to this stuff, and can't see past my own
associations.
Visually, IÆve filtered this overall theme through the image on the front cover.
ItÆs taken from an old, obscure book that I stumbled across in my own deepest
90s conspiratorial immersions. At the time I was convinced that this book was a
secret key provided to me synchronistically by a secret chief or wizard or
guardian angel and that all the answers I sought could be found in it if I
squinted just right.